Maxis on SimCity: EA “investing quite a bit” in making always-online work
46 replies, posted
[img]http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2012/07/SimCity-610x240.jpg[/img]
[quote]
The cheery response to the announcement of a new SimCity game was quickly tempered back in March by the announcement that it’ll require a permanent online connection to work. Videogamer caught up with Maxis’ Lucy Bradshaw to ask why SimCity won’t end up mirroring Diablo 3′s launch. Bradshaw says that EA are “investing quite a bit in making sure we’re locked and loaded.”
“If you’ve seen some of our recent launches they’ve been really quite flawless. Battlefield had huge amounts of players and stayed extremely stable, and think [B]SWTOR was one of the most absolutely stable MMO launches[/B],” she adds.
Bradshaw wouldn’t give exact details when quizzed on the consequences of dropping connection, mid-game, [B]but she does say that Maxis “have a nice, graceful way of dealing with those kind of things so that you’re not going to lose stuff.[/B] That’s the beauty of it being asynchronous, is that we are able to be very graceful about how that online connection works and stuff.
[B]“I think we’re going to be in a really great place,” she adds.[/B]
As for the reasons why a game about building your own city needs to be permanently connected to the web, Bradshaw says this: “What we’re giving you is a lot of choice in terms of how you play. You can play connected with friends but you can also take an entire region on by yourself – you’re not going to really witness the fact that this is anything keeping you from exploring the space or doing what you want in terms of how you play.
“I think that what we wanted to do was give SimCity a context. In the past Sim Cities were these kind of isolated little islands, they had their own closed economies. What we wanted to do was put you, in a sense, where you had kind of motivation and purpose and context.”
A couple of months ago, producer Jason Haber told us that SimCity has been built to be multiplayer from the ground up,[B] adding that the always-online requirement wasn’t added in for DRM reasons.[/B]
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[url]http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/07/16/maxis-on-simcity-ea-investing-quite-a-bit-in-making-always-online-work/[/url]
"adding that the always-online requirement wasn’t added in for DRM reasons."
ahahahahhhahahahaahahahahahahahah
[QUOTE=MightyMax;36801353]"adding that the always-online requirement wasn’t added in for DRM reasons."
ahahahahhhahahahaahahahahahahahah[/QUOTE]
It seems like always on requirement could only be for DRM Reasons.
I get that multiplayer requires constant internet connection but what about single player?
Unfortunate for them, since the always online things is pretty much single handedly making me not buy it
Does this mean another origin exclusive..... Does origin even have offline mode?
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;36801377]Unfortunate for them, since the always online things is pretty much single handedly making me not buy it[/QUOTE]
Even though pirates get to play the game with no hassles AT ALL.
Big publishers like EA are like little kids that don't understand something so simple like 2+2. They just fail to see that ALL drm will be cracked usually within a couple days.
But they continue to hurt themselves by doing dumbass things like always on DRM that only hurt the consumer, not the pirate.
At EA, we're spending a lot of money developing shit you don't want, and passing the costs on to you! Watch your back, Valve!
Well they do have all those empty TOR servers, might as well use them for something.
But still, this kind of "DRM" doesn't work that well.
[QUOTE=legolover122;36801411]Even though pirates get to play the game with no hassles AT ALL.
Big publishers like EA are like little kids that don't understand something so simple like 2+2. They just fail to see that ALL drm will be cracked usually within a couple days.
But they continue to hurt themselves by doing dumbass things like always on DRM that only hurt the consumer, not the pirate.[/QUOTE]
After the whole spore debacle I would have thought they'd have learned their customers don't like bullshit DRM stuff like this.
Clearly this is not the case, so quite frankly I hope this game sells like shit unless they do some serious turn around.
EA at its finest.
[quote]SWTOR was one of the most absolutely stable MMO launches[/quote]
Wasn't SWTOR ultimately a failure though?
[QUOTE=legolover122;36801370]It seems like always on requirement could only be for DRM Reasons.
I get that multiplayer requires constant internet connection but what about single player?[/QUOTE]
Well, Anno 2070 for example made good use of the always-on internet connection the game needs.
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;36801453]After the whole spore debacle I would have thought they'd have learned their customers don't like bullshit DRM stuff like this.
Clearly this is not the case, so quite frankly I hope this game sells like shit unless they do some serious turn around.[/QUOTE]
This game will sell very well. People always talk about not buying games in order to protest DRM, just look at how many people said they wouldn't buy Diablo 3. Almost all of the people that say they aren't going to buy a game end up buying it anyways, and the remaining few that don't barely make a dent in the sales.
They're investing quite a bit into something that can NEVER work perfectly (I've yet to hear of a server system that never goes down ever), that no one wants, and benefits only corporate interest at the expense of the player.
Man, IGN was right to write an article asking just [I]why[/I] do people hate EA. Sure has me stumped.
[QUOTE=The golden;36801704]The problem is that most gamers don't have any balls.
You have people that rant and rant about how much they hate EA and EA's business practices, threatening to never buy a EA game ever again blah blah blah
but when EA launches their next title, those people are usually the first to dive right in and hand EA their cash.
Rinse and repeat.[/QUOTE]
Because the majority is just fine with dealing with it.
If we were able to somehow convice 90% of EA customers to not buy their shit then I would join them. But until then I will keep buying from EA because while I disagree with their business practices, I do enjoy their games.
i just dont want this game to turn out looking like a fucking cartoon game, otherwise i wont buy it
[QUOTE=legolover122;36801735]Because the majority is just fine with dealing with it.
If we were able to somehow convice 90% of EA customers to not buy their shit then I would join them. But until then I will keep buying from EA because while I disagree with their business practices, I do enjoy their games.[/QUOTE]
That's one of the functions of piracy, you get to enjoy the games but also send the message that you disagree with what they're doing.
[QUOTE=Electrocuter;36801809]That's one of the functions of piracy, you get to enjoy the games but also send the message that you disagree with what they're doing.[/QUOTE]
I pretty much live for the multiplayer. In games like Mass Effect and previous Sim City games it works without multiplayer, but with things like battlefield, online is a must for me.
[quote]"We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. [B]Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem[/B]," he said. "If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable."
The proof is in the proverbial pudding. "Prior to entering the Russian market, we were told that Russia was a waste of time because everyone would pirate our products. Russia is now about to become [Steam's] largest market in Europe," Newell said.[/quote]
- Gabe Newell
[QUOTE=Jetblack357;36801610]Wasn't SWTOR ultimately a failure though?[/QUOTE]
I think EA made lots of money off of it I dunno
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;36801453]After the whole spore debacle I would have thought they'd have learned their customers don't like bullshit DRM stuff like this.
Clearly this is not the case, so quite frankly I hope this game sells like shit unless they do some serious turn around.[/QUOTE]
and as soon as sales will be shit because everyone and their grandad pirated it to play it without hassle, they will blame it on the pirates and not on themselves, and state that they won't spend further time/support/etc. on that game.
Everyone loses
So wait, always-online like Diablo 3?
I already had enough troubles with that
Are they TRYING to commit ritual suicide now?
[editline]16th July 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=Jetblack357;36801610]Wasn't SWTOR ultimately a failure though?[/QUOTE]
It was a financial success for the first couple of months thanks to the hype. I doubt it is going to stay afloat for very long, you can just SEE all the rats jumping off of the TORtanic.
[QUOTE=Lyonidis;36802150]Are they TRYING to commit ritual suicide now?
[editline]16th July 2012[/editline]
It was a financial success for the first couple of months thanks to the hype. I doubt it is going to stay afloat for very long, you can just SEE all the rats jumping off of the TORtanic.[/QUOTE]
Afaik they haven't even gained profit from swtor yet.
[QUOTE=RichyZ;36802189]i think they mean it was stable as in the servers didn't crash or everyone got error 37 or something of that sort[/QUOTE]
Yeah but it was awful.
It would randomly go up to like 10 thousand ping and then kick me out even though my internet was working just fine.
They fixed it but during that time the co-op mission shit was out of the question.
The thing is no matter how well things go on their side it's still dependent on the customer's internet, and not everyone can have a constant good connection.
Do they never learn?
[QUOTE=Electrocuter;36801809]That's one of the functions of piracy, you get to enjoy the games but also send the message that you disagree with what they're doing.[/QUOTE]
More like you send a message that says "make more DRM or stop developing for PC because they're all pirates".
[QUOTE=Jetblack357;36801610]Wasn't SWTOR ultimately a failure though?[/QUOTE]
Within a month of them announcing an extended trial that would last till level 15, they already were in talks of making it F2P. They're getting desperate.
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